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POPULAR: Plot Bunny Zoo

AceTrainer14

The acest of trainers
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Hello all!

A few years ago, we used to have a thread where people could come and discuss random ideas they had had for plot. For some reason, it completely died out back in 2012, so after all those years, we have decided to bring it back.

From now on, if you've got a new plot idea you want to flesh out and want some comments on, this is the new home for all those queries! I look forward to seeing all the ideas you wonderful writers have up your sleeves.
 
Guess I'll start this thing

Since I'm almost finished with Explorers of Destruction, I was thinking of fleshing out another story of mine, Desolate Lands. In that one, we meet a Treecko in a drought stricken woodlands, with no recollection of his memories. Originally I was gonna take a similar route with this much like Yugioh Zexal, where he has to defeat certain enemies to gain more pieces of his memory, but since that would take too much time I don't have, I decided not to do that. So should I instead find another way for him to unlock his memories, or have this be just temporary Amnesia?

And another thing I wanted to focus on in that story was the drought. All of Frontei is going through a severe drought that makes California glad it's not happening to them for once. As water sources start drying out, a lot of Pokemon become desperate and turn to the life of an outlaw just to get some. At some point I want my Charmander and Treecko to address this to Lugia, the Queen of the Sea, and she summons a rain storm that lasts long enough to replenish all the oceans, lakes, and other water bodies on land. But then it turns out the drought was so strong, it dried it all out in a single night. Does this sound solid to anyone, or does it still need some work?
 
Amnesia is a tricky thing to write about in fiction and especially in a believable way. Memories can be triggered by a lot of things, scents, taste, image or by physically being in a location related to that lost memory. Try use those as possible ideas of how Treecko regains his memory.

As for the plot of your story, it sounds like a solid story and mystery to me.

Now for my plot bunny. I've had this idea about alternate ways of qualifying to the regional league instead of just collecting badges and I would like to hear some opinions. Could I do it a little bit different or can there be added more to this? I'll put what I've written so far in the spoiler below.

How City Tournaments works


City Tournaments are an alternative to Pokémon trainers who wishes to participate in the Indigo League Conference, but already have acquired the 8 required badges from a previous year or wishes to try out an alternate way of entering the conference. As the name implies, City Tournaments take place in various cities across Johto and Kanto, with each region having 20 tournaments in total per year.

In order to qualify for the Indigo League Conference through City Tournaments, the trainer must acquire a total of 50 Region League Points (RLP) from participating in them. The point distribution are as follows:


Round 1: 2 points

Round 2: 4 points

Quarterfinals: 5 points

Semifinals: 7 points

2nd place: 8 points

1st place: 10 points


If the participating trainer loses on the first round, they receive 2 points. If they lose in the second round, they receive 4 points and so on. 1st place winners receive 10 points, a trophy to celebrate the trainer’s victory and a supply of trainer equipment, Pokémon food and Technical Machines.

In order to enter a City Tournament, a minimum of 2 Pokémon are required. The following rounds will work as follows:

Round 1: 2 vs 2

Round 2: 2 vs 2

Quarterfinals: 3 vs 3

Semifinals: 4 vs 4

Finals: 4 vs 4

Note that later rounds don’t require more than 2 Pokémon, only a maximum of 3 or 4 Pokémon.


Written and practical tests

Written tests test trainers on their knowledge of Pokémon. The tests feature various topics and questions regarding Pokémon, including but not limited to:

- Biology

- Natural habitats

- History

- Physics & Science

A written test last for around 3 hours. Afterwards, trainers will begin with their practical exams.


Practical tests last for 4 days and test trainers on their methods of training and raising of 3 different and random Pokémon provided by the Pokémon Center, while being monitored by official Pokémon League employees.

On the 4th day, the trainers will do battle with the Pokémon provided to them with each other to test the result of the training. And at the end of the day, the trainers will receive their final results on paper. If they pass both the written and the practical tests, they’ll be qualified to enter the regional league.
 
So should I instead find another way for him to unlock his memories, or have this be just temporary Amnesia?

I'm generally not a fan of amnesia as a plot device, at least not the way that anime likes to do it. A lot of writers essentially gloss over the fact that it's quite often brain damage. And then there's the common trope where all it takes is some kind of trigger, then cue the gasp and flashback scene. It's too neat, too convenient. If you must go down that route, I certainly wouldn't have it triggered off by boss fights.

Does this sound solid to anyone, or does it still need some work?

Well. It's pokémon, so I assume the drought itself is supernatural in cause. That being the case I'm not sure how much climatology is really appropriate. In any case, if the cause is supernatural, I'd say the effects have to be. And a drought strong enough to cause that kind of evaporation is gonna have killed anything short of extremophile bacteria before Lugia could show up. I'm honestly not sure how you could solve that problem

@Tophat Dragoneye Oh, tournaments, fast becoming the bane of my life. Couple of immediate thoughts - firstly, presumably RLP would carry over from previous years? You'd need to minimum win five tournaments in one year to qualify otherwise ... let's see, if we assume all the canonical settlements in Kanto host, that would mean 5/10. Is that the kind of difficulty you were thinking of? In any case, it's certainly more difficult. After all, in an elimination tournament, one bad day and that's it, whereas you can challenge a Gym Leader multiple times, with foreknowledge of what type they'll use

Tests are kind of fun, reminds me of the Indigo League anime. As a matter of pedantry, you might want to consider the question of why knowledge of natural history qualifies a trainer for entry into a sporting competition.

A bunny that's been bugging me for a while, that I can't seem to resolve. I'm sort of idly planning a Legend of Zelda fic. During the course of the story the main character forges an enchanted sword while Ganondorf's invasion is going very well for him indeed. The idea is that he finishes it in time for what would be the desperate, almost guerilla resistance after the initial battles have been lost. Problem is, I can't decide whether it's believable or not.

The character is a master swordsmith, and knows plenty of forging-spells. Everything I've ever read or seen on forging real swords gives a vague estimate of how long it takes - and honestly, I think it depends on what time period. This Hyrule will be approximately 14th-15th century ish in terms of technology, so, I don't know. I was planning on having him come across a forge so he wouldn't have to start literally completely from scratch
 
@Tophat Dragoneye For me, it was easier to have the badges be good for life, though league tournaments are not the focus in XCD; it's supplemental information. Still, I've been wanting to make some kind of point-based competition for a while; that idea definitely helps.

@Beth Pavell Maybe don't make the situation too hopeless. Have the heroes win a couple of battles so they're not overrun. If you're including a forge, though, you should destroy it and force the character to finish without its help to add tension.

One thing I've added into XCD is that the Gym battles Serena fights are not all standard. The Shara Battle had her balancing four separate Single Battles, plus a Double Battle after. One Gym will have a Triple Battle and another will have Rotation. Only two other Gyms have no known special battle style yet. I don't want to make it too outrageous, though, and I'm hoping the concept itself isn't too ridiculous. I used it because people said they were tired of the anime's Gym Battles being so repetitive.
 
A bunny that's been bugging me for a while, that I can't seem to resolve. I'm sort of idly planning a Legend of Zelda fic. During the course of the story the main character forges an enchanted sword while Ganondorf's invasion is going very well for him indeed. The idea is that he finishes it in time for what would be the desperate, almost guerilla resistance after the initial battles have been lost. Problem is, I can't decide whether it's believable or not.

The character is a master swordsmith, and knows plenty of forging-spells. Everything I've ever read or seen on forging real swords gives a vague estimate of how long it takes - and honestly, I think it depends on what time period. This Hyrule will be approximately 14th-15th century ish in terms of technology, so, I don't know. I was planning on having him come across a forge so he wouldn't have to start literally completely from scratch

Pavs... I'd honestly just go with it. It's an interesting, almost unexplored time period, if I'm understanding you correctly.
 
A bunny that's been bugging me for a while, that I can't seem to resolve. I'm sort of idly planning a Legend of Zelda fic. During the course of the story the main character forges an enchanted sword while Ganondorf's invasion is going very well for him indeed. The idea is that he finishes it in time for what would be the desperate, almost guerilla resistance after the initial battles have been lost. Problem is, I can't decide whether it's believable or not.

The character is a master swordsmith, and knows plenty of forging-spells. Everything I've ever read or seen on forging real swords gives a vague estimate of how long it takes - and honestly, I think it depends on what time period. This Hyrule will be approximately 14th-15th century ish in terms of technology, so, I don't know. I was planning on having him come across a forge so he wouldn't have to start literally completely from scratch
I think that sounds perfectly believable. Which timeline would this be set in? You could potentially borrow the forge from ALttP or ALBW for your purposes.
 
This would be set on the ... Adult Link timeline. I can never remember quite how those damn timelines split.
Ah, so pre-Wind Waker, then. That'd be cool! Not an era that's explored much. Obviously, the status of the forge in ALttP and ALBW isn't really detailed there, so it'd be an easy thing to just throw in if you need a forge and want to keep with things that actually show up in Zelda games.
 
Which character archetype do you guys think Xerneas fits in best if you chose to make him evil? A KnightTemplar, a DarkMessiah, or an AntiVillain?

I was wanting my Xerneas from Explorers of Destruction to exhibit one of these traits, though I don't know which one to choose. Essentially, Xerneas wants to get rid of Yveltal so that he can make all of Pokemonkind immortal. Xerneas embodies the concept of life, meaning, he will live forever as long as life exists in some way. And since Yveltal lives by taking away life, I hope you can see why he's such a major threat to him.

But Yveltal isn't the typical OmnicidalManiac. I was thinking of having him be a DarkMessiah with DeathSeeker tendencies. He respects life, which is why he wants to end it.
 
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Which character archetype do you guys think Xerneas fits in best if you chose to make him evil? A KnightTemplar, a DarkMessiah, or an AntiVillain?
From the Pokedex...

"When the horns on its head shine in seven different colors, it is said to be sharing everlasting life."

Sounds like an evil Xerneas would be a Dark Messiah to me.
 
This would be set on the ... Adult Link timeline. I can never remember quite how those damn timelines split.
Honestly I would not worry about the timelines. The timelines don't make any sense. Just do your own thing, that's what fanfiction is for, anyways. I know when I was drafting up notes for my Twin Kingdoms reboot, the first rule I had was "do not try to place this into a timeline". It made everything so much easier.

Speaking of, I'm kinda considering just releasing the notes for that. Between Storm Island and a project Caitlin is dragging me into kicking and screaming, there's no time for it.
 
Obsidian, I'd say your vision of Xerneas feels like a Knight Templar, honestly. So dedicated to its cause, it cannot abide its opponent. It reminds me of certain darker interpretations of Primus, from the Transformers mythos. Primus is an ancient being who created the Transformers as an answer to his opposite, Unicron. Primus essentially embodies creation and order, whereas Unicron embodies destruction and chaos. Some interpretations have Primus's grand plan for the universe as being so rigid as to be unyielding and stagnant, which of course would be just as bad as Unicron devouring everything. (Nothing in actual canon portrays the struggle this way, but I find it an very interesting interpretation.)
 
So I have a bunny that just won't leave based on a what if question and a dream I had one night--what if there were a movie that spoofed all the dystopian series currently popular (eg. The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Maze Runner, etc.) and by spoof, I don't mean add in a bunch of toilet humor and call it good--my dream imagind it in the vein of a Mel Brooks movie (eg. Blazing Saddles, Spaceballs, etc.)

The movies in my dream mainly spoofed Divergent, but also had elements of The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner (they were called "Divesion", "Inversion", and "Aversion")

The problem is, I haven't read (and do not plan to read, any of these books, so I wonder if those that have want to take a crack at this?
 
@0bs1d1an_kn1ght Hurting Hero, yes. Self-derpreciating is tricky on any account. It depends on his own experiences, but it probably shouldn't be immediate. I think I have something relatable in XCD: Urara is self-depreciating (though not always openly), but it's partially because she's remorseful for bullying Hikari. She sees it as self-punishment for actual wrongdoing. She had low self-esteem in her past, though, which also contributes, but it otherwise pushes her to try and do right in the present.

If I'm breaking any rules with these posts, please let me know.
 
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@0bs1d1an_kn1ght Hurting Hero, yes. Self-derpreciating is tricky on any account. It depends on his own experiences, but it probably shouldn't be immediate. I think I have something relatable in XCD: Urara is self-depreciating (though not always openly), but it's partially because she's remorseful for bullying Hikari. She sees it as self-punishment for actual wrongdoing. She had low self-esteem in her past, though, which also contributes, but it otherwise pushes her to try and do right in the present.

If I'm breaking any rules with these posts, please let me know.

It's mostly that, after being beaten by Ku the Garchomp, Oran becomes much more grounded to reality and realizes he has abysmal self-esteem issues (the Lucario in his dreams is actually how he sees himself, and after that encounter with Ku, it devolves to a Riolu). Afterwards he wants to improve himself, but no matter how hard he tries, and no matter how much praise he receives, he can't shake the feelings of inadequacy. Sometimes it's as small and simple as telling himself "I could have done better on this mission", other times just a small mishap that no one thought nothing of would have him spiral into an anxiety attack.
 
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